Do you remember when you were a kid and you'd have like a hundred different things you wanted to be when you grew up? I bet most of them were pretty out there, right? Like a famous singer, or a pro baseball player, maybe even an astronaut. I know one of the things I wanted to be was a singer, even though I couldn't keep a note. But despite that, when my friends and I were together we would form a little group and sing on my front porch, pretending we were putting on a concert in front of a million people. That dream of mine was short-lived though because I lost interest in the entire thing and grew to liking nothing more than being lost in a good book. This is what my ultimate dream was born out of, to be a writer, until I realized it was my calling.
My imagination would run wild, and I had a little journal that I'd write these short stories in. I was certain that one day I would write a book and see it in a bookstore. That my name would be known. But as I grew older, this dream in me began to wane as I listened to the negativity of everyday life, people saying its ok to dream but make sure you have something else for when that doesn't happen. This can really burst a person's bubble. My family supported and encouraged me, always saying to reach big, but somewhere along the line, my dream got farther out of reach for me.
When I was thirteen, I started my first novel, mostly to give me something to do. It was going to be this ultra medieval fantasy thing. I started it, stopped it, restarted it again, then stopped it again. I could never get myself to write more than 100 pages. Then something major happened a year later in my life, a personal matter that I'd rather not share except to say that it scared me. I needed something more than myself to get me through, and this is when I completely gave my heart to God. When I did that, my writing became more than just something to do for myself, and to be entertaining. It became something in which I could move people with, and that I could minister the love of God with. It became all about Him, and finally my novel was actually completed. Now, nearly five years later, my dream is becoming a reality, all because I yielded to God and to the dream that He instilled into my heart when I was a little girl.
I say all of this for a reason. When we're young, it's as if nothing can hold us back. We dream big! But as the years pass by, something changes that in us, and I'm here to tell you that it doesn't have to be that way. God wants us to dream big, and He wants us to see those dreams become a reality in our lives. Habakkuk 2:2-3 states in the Amplified Bible, 'And the Lord answered me and said, Write the vision and engrave it so plainly upon tablets that everyone who passes may [be able to] read [it easily and quickly] as he hastens by. For the vision is yet for an appointed time and it hastens to the end [fulfillment]; it will not deceive or disappoint. Though it tarry, wait [earnestly] for it, because it will surely come; it will not be behindhand on its appointed day.'
God has something for you to do, He has a vision He wants to write on your heart, and all you have to do to is ask Him. Maybe He's already given you a vision, but people are telling you its impossible, you're not qualified, or even that it's ridiculous. Don't listen to people. Listen to God.
It reminds me of the story of Blind Bartimeus in Mark 10:46-52. Jesus went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great number of people followed them. Blind Bartimeus was sitting by the highwayside, and he was begging. He was poor. When he heard that Jesus was walking past him, he cried out to Him and said Jesus! Thou son of David! Have mercy on me! But many people charged and reproved him, telling him to hold his peace. Really, telling him to stop trying to bother Jesus. But the Bible says that Bartimeus cried the more a great deal, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me! Bartimeus wasn't going to listen to these people telling him to shut up. He was blind, and he was poor, and he knew that the man that could change all of it was walking by him. He was determined to get Jesus' attention, no matter who told him to stop.
This is how we need to be. When God has put something on our hearts, we need to go after it. We need to have faith that what God promises, he's able to perform and not give ear to any negativity that people may be saying to us.
Today I encourage you to step out. I encourage you to think big and dream big, then go after it. You might have a dream in your heart that's been there since you were a kid and never went away. If you believe God has called you to do this, then try it. If it's God then He will give you the ability to do it. He did for me. English was my worst subject in school, and now look. I write novels. God is Almighty and nothing, absolutely nothing, is impossible to Him, and if you serve Him, nothing is impossible to you either.
Mark 9:23- . . .If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.
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